felf, or by another, for your vote. Perjury is one of the moft heinous and atrocious crimes a reasonable creature can be guilty of, as it is the moft daring affront he can offer to his Creator; for in this he bids defiance to all the perfections of God; to his omnifcience, as if he did not fee what he is doing; to his justice, as if he would not call him to an account for it; and to his power, as if he could not punish him. This is deliberate blafphemy in practice. Nothing therefore can juttify a man in fuch a conduct, but an abfolute and demonftrative certainty, that there is no God: but could you ever, can you ever, perfuade yourself with certainty of this? No, the fignatures and proofs of his Being are too deeply engraved upon all his works, and your own confciences in particular, ever to be erafed.

Be affured, that he who will perjure himfelf in giving you a bribe, will stick at nothing, is a knave and a villain; and can you be otherwife to chufe fuch -a representative?

Wherefore, if any have been guilty of this crime in time paft, I fhall not be ashamed to exhort them to repent of it before God, whom they have highly offended, and to fhew the fincerity of their repentance by renouncing the gain of it for ever; for, as our Saviour faid, "What fhall it profit a man, if he fball gain the whole world. and lofe his own foul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his foul?"

And now, gentlemen of the clergy, fuffer me to addrefs myfelf to you. Your office binds you in a particular manner to watch over the fouls, and confequently over the morals of men. The apoftle tells you, you are appointed to this very thing; and you have revenues affigned you for this very thing. You, doubtlefs, believe that perjury is a daring affront to, and aggravated offence against God; you believe alfo, that drunkenness, brawlings, quarrels, and fightings, are all violations of his facred law; you are alfo fenfible that many of thefe things abound at many elections. Can you be faithful to your truft, and the fouls of men, and yet be filent about them? Can you see them acted in your parishes, and among the very people of whom ou have charge, and yet look on as

indifferent and unconcerned fpectators of them? I hope not. Shew then to the world, with a noble boldness, that you are both men, chriftians, and minifters of the gofpel. Preach again thefe vices publicly at this feafon; re prove them privately. Regard no man's perfon, no man's rank. Pay that refpect to the great that is due, but connive at the fins of none. If poffible, affront nobody, yet labour to reform all. Be not biaffed by the rich, nor defpife the poor. Be not tempted by promifes, nor frightened by threats. Further, content not yourselves with preaching against these vices, but live against them, which is one of the best ways of correcting them: and, befides, the contrary virtues appear with a peculiar luftre and advantage in your lives, because they are fo fuitable to your office; just as vice appears more confpicuous in the clergy, because fo unfuitable to their caracter. In a word, gentlemen, you cannot but be fenfible, both from converfation and books, of the heavy charges which have been laid against fome members of your body; that they are more folicitous about their revenues than their morals; that they mind the fleece more than the flock'; good eating and drinking more than good lives; that they loll at their ease, and neglect their office; that they heap benefice upon benefice, and hardly ferve the cure of one; that they stickle more for power than for things that edify; that they are never co tented till they get a mitre, and when they have got it, they look upon it as a difcharge from the moft material branches of a minifter's office; that then they generally bid farewel to reading prayers, preaching the word, vifiting the fick, and teaching from houfe to house. Let fuch, if there be any fuch,, wipe off these odious accufations by a faithful, diligent, and confcientious discharge of their duty. I thall conclude with the words of the prophet Ezek. xxxiii. 7: "Son of man, I have fet thee as a watchman to the house of Ifrael; thou fhalt therefore hear the word at my mouth; and fhalt warn them from me. When I fay unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt furely die, if thou doft not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man fhall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require

at

which Mr. Foote occupied it himself, with the aid of Mr. Woodward, and had a very handfome fhare of profit, A particular regifter of the performances of that teafon was published in the Whitehall Evening Poff, under the title of Momus in Edinburgh. For the other two years, Mr. Digges had it by a fub-lease from Mr. Foote, and both of thefe proved abundantly fuccefsful, in fo much that it is faid he laft year cleared 8ool. Upon the expiration of Mr. Foote's leafe, Mr. Digges took a new lease from Mr. Rofs for feven years, commencing with the winter 1773-4. The rent, it is faid, is three hundred guineas a year, which is no fmall tax upon the drama of fuch a place as Edinburgh, where there are not two full audiences, and confequently the money muft come almoft conftantly out of the fame pockets.

Mr. Digges has been always a great favourite at Edinburgh. His figure is noble; and in tragedy, and grave and interefting comedy, he is certainly a most capital actor. Since he became a manager, he has devoted himself to his profeffion with an affiduity and perfeverance, amazing in a man of a moft convivial disposition, and whose company is courted as the most agreeable regale; but he has attached himself with fuch fervor to the dramatic Mufe, that he can rarely be prevailed with to join a focial party. The king of Pruffia, during the intensenefs of his wars, called himself a Military Monk: Mr. Digges is a theatrical one.

Having had the theatre very elegantly ornamented, he opened laft winter with an occational prologue, written by Mr. Woods, an ingenious young gentleman belonging to his company, and who is rifing faft in his profeffion, both in the tragic and comic walk. His company was fuch, as it is belived no theatre out of London had fo good. He had Mr. and Mrs. Inchbald; Mrs. Wefton (formerly Mifs Adcock) a fine lively little creature; Mrs. Webb, an actrefs of general merit; Mr. Death for fine gentlemen; Mr. Wilfon for low comic parts, and a number of other performers of different degrees of merit in different ways.

The fhock which credit fuffered in Scotland, by the late numerous banktcies, was attended with visible ef

:

fects upon all the departments of life. A kind of compelled frugality took place in every family even the very necetiaries of life were more fparingly purchafed; the confumption of coals and butcher-meat was far fhort of the ufual quantities. Every body complained. The people of Scotland are remarkably litigious; but the lawyers in the court of fellion murmured on account of a famine of fees. No wonder then that the theatre fhared the general scarcity: Mr. Digges played for many weeks with lofs. Novelty has a wonderful effect: a Mrs. Hunt from London, who had never appeared on any stage, enlifted under Mr. Digges's banners by the name of Mrs. Hunter; the received high applaufe in the Jealous Wife, and difplayed fuch talents in feveral characters, as to draw pretty full houses. Next, arrived from Dublin Mr. Foote, who played a few weeks, and kept things much alive. About the fame time, and from the fame place, arrived Mr. and Mrs. Jackfon, who performed three nights in a tragedy called Eldred, written by Mr. Jackfon upon an interesting ftory of private diftrefs, the hint of which was taken fron the beautiful flory of Naboth's Vineyard. A tyrant wants to compel a poor man to fell the inheritance of his fathers. Mr. Jackfon's merit from this play will, it is hoped, have its reward in Drury-lane.

Notwithftanding all these incidental revivals, it is feared that, upon the whole, Mr. Digges has been no gainer. though he exhibited an extenfive variety of good pieces, and got up many of the new plays of the feafon with atlonifning quicknefs. The theatre clofed for the feafon, on Saturday the 9th of April, with the favourite comedy She floops to conquer. It was remarkable, that the accounts of the ingenious author's death had reached Edinburgh just the night before, fo that there was a mingled fenfation of pleafantry and regret.

A critical Examination of Mr. Lee's Performance of Young Wilding in the Farce of the Lyar.

Gentlemen,

gazine.

countenance;

From his deportment and manner of peaking, it was evident that Mr. Lee was bred a gentleman; for ease is only to be acquired by frequenting genteel company, and a juftnefs of emphafis, accent, and paufe, can be attained alone by education. His perfon is manly and well proportionate; his voice ftrong, full, clear, and harmonious; finking to the lowest whisper without being inarticulate, and rifing to every requifite height without harfhnefs or fcreaming. The various paffions were expreffed, not only in words, but by his and his action was neither unmeaningly aukward, nor prepofteroufly fuperfluous, but feemed in a medium, which a little acquaintance with the ftage would render perfectly juft. The timidity confequent to a firft appearance before a numerous and polite audience, was apparent in the first scene; and was as apparently unaffected. He went through the whole part with a propriety which could fcarce be expected from an untried actor; and feemed to be deficient only in that air of impudence, and that glaring effrontery, which Mr. Foote fo lavishly difplays. Whether it is proper, and whether fome marks of ingenuoufnefs are not neceffary to make Wilding's lies feem credible, we leave to be difputed by critics at their leifure; but we are apt to think, that if the falfity was apparent in his face and air, Sir Ja. Elliot, Mifs Grantham, and his father, ought to be deemed arrant fools to give any credit to his tongue. Upon the whole, we must conclude, that, however agreeable Mr. Lee's vivacity and humour appeared in this character, yet his figure, voice, and manner, feem excellently adapted to tragedy; in which walk we fhould be glad to fee him enter: We think, after this fpecimen, if he does not attach himself to the stage, he will certainly deprive it of a very defirable ornament; and we may juftly fay of Mr. Lee's acting, as Dr. Goldfmith does of Mr. Garrick's wit:

---if not first, in the very first line,

TH

HE holy fcriptures contain the grounds of our faith, and the divine precepts for our conduct in this life, for the attainment of happiness in that which is to come: hence they are defervedly dear to all chriftians. It is indeed one unhappiness, that, from the Hebrew ceafing to be a living language, we are obliged to trust to tranfations, which have been made in divers langu-ages; and for the benefit of the mere English reader, fundry learned and eminent men have written large commentaries and explanations on those texts which feemed most difficult to be underflood. Yet, notwithstanding their care, there are many miftranflations to be found in the English verfion of the old and new teflaments, which are still to be rectified. A long acquaintance with the Hebrew language (fo neceffary to a thorough knowledge of the bible) hath enabled me to obferve fundry places where the sense of the infpired authors has not been justly rendered; and I flatter my felf that my pointing out and explaining them will not be difagreeable to your readers, nor unferviceable to thofe who would defend our holy religion from the cavils of men, who lay hold on fome feeming contradictions, and fome errors which have crept into our text, to malign our faith. I shall occafionally fend fome of thefe observations to your magazine, and am your very humble fervant,

Dublin, May 10, 1774.

HEBRAICUS.

We are told in the second chapter of the book of Jofhua, that that great captain and fucceffor of Mofes, fent two men from Shittim (where the hoft of the Ifraelites then was) to Jericho, as fpies, to find out the fituation of the enemy: and the text fays, they went, and came into an harlot's houfe, named Rahab, and lodged there." Jof. chap. 2. verfe 1. We find that this woman concealed these fpies, when the king of Jericho fent to feize them; and the hid them under flax-flalks on the roof of the house; and, when the city gates was fhut, the let them down by a cord without the city, as her houfe was on the

town wall.

In return for this kindness the mec

In the Talmud, the Jews paraphrafe it

and mother, brethren and fifters, with all their property, fhould be fafe, on condition that he placed a fcarlet line in her window, that her house might be known from the rest.

Accordingly when Jericho was furrounded by the hoft of Ifrael, Joshua declared, 4 the city fhall be accurfed (i. e. devoted to destruction) even it and all that are therein, to the Lord: only Rahab, the barlot, fhall live, he and all that are with her in the houfe, becaufe fhe hid the meffengers that we fent." Jof. chap. 4. verfe 17. And when the city was taken, it was burnt to the ground, and all the inhabitants put to the fword: "But Joshua had faid unto the two men that had fpied out the country, Go into the barlot's houfe and bring out thence the woman, and all that the hath, as ye fwear unto her." verse 22. "And Joshua faved Rahab, the harlot, alive," &c. verse 25.

Here we may obferve, that this Rahab is called a harlot four feveral times. Yet from this very Rahab, was Chrift lineally defcended, fince fhe was married to no lefs a person than Salmon, a prince of the house of Judah, and was mother of Boaz the husband of Ruth, and father to Obed, grand-father to king David. See Math. 1. 5. Ruth, c. 4. V. 20. 21. 1 Chron. c. 11. V. II, 12. Hence fome fcoffers at chriftianity have made it a matter of reproach, that our Lord had a woman named in his genealogy, who is ftigmatized in the holy fcriptures as a harlot. But this reproach will foon ceafe, when thefe men are convinced that it is folely founded on a miltranflation; and that the word does not fignify a harlot, nor was ever taken in that fenfe by the most learned men in all ages, who were beft acquainted with the Hebrew language, as I fall now prove.

The word in Hebrew is

Zonah,

Some may object that the Septuagint tranflate it by the Greek word Пóg and St. James, in the 25th verfe of the 2nd chapter of his epiftle, writes thus, Ομοίως δε καὶ Ῥααβ ἡ πόρνη. Likewije alfo, was not Rahab the harlot,&c. It is true that wig, means frequently an harlot, but it is alfo as frequently rendered a victualler, which is its proper fenfe in this place, (fee Junius in loc.) And this may ferve to fhew, that fome of the tranflators of the Bible of King James I. (which is our prefent verfion) tranflated from the Greek rather than the Hebrew, and took the worft fenfe of the word they found in the feptuagint inftead of that which was most applicable. For, it is not to be fuppofed, that if Rabab had been a barlot, however her conduct in refpect to the two fpies might have placed high in favour with Jofhua, yet it could not have intitled her to an alliance with a prince of Judah, as we know that Salmon, who married her was, as the text fays, "Aminadab begat Nahfhon, prince of the children of Judah; and Nahfhon begat Salma (or Salmon, as he is elsewhere called) Chron. c. 2. v. 10, 11. and fhe must have been very young at the time of faving the fpies, fince Junius proves that the was mother of Boaz above thirty years afterwards,

An Explanation of the Plate of the Tea Plant,

of the Tea Tree, with its flowers HE first figure represents a branch and fruit. The fixteen other figures exhibit the feveral parts, feparately and diftinctly.

N. B. The fame letters refer equally to each figure.

a The antheras of the ftamina.
b The petals.
C The corolla.
d The stipula.

e The emarginate apex of the leaf.
F The leaves.

g The germen of the piftillum.
K The calyx.

P The pericarpium.
p The peduncles,

S The